Modern electronic products including, for example, consumer electronics, computers, telecommunication equipment and automobile electronics use semiconductor devices, such as transistors, to perform a desired function. Exemplary functions performed by semiconductor devices in such products include electrical signals routing switches, multiplexer/demultiplexers, differential amplifiers, and signal mixers such as up and down signal converters for modulation or demodulation. Typical circuit configurations of at least four transistors, in integrated circuit form or otherwise, are used for producing a 1.times.2 signal routing switch circuit or multiplexer/demultiplexer, which is described in greater detail in, for example, N. Weste and K. Eshraghian, Principles of CMOS VLSI Design, ch. 1, pp. 4-29 (Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. 1985), and incorporated by reference herein. Also, typical circuit configurations of at least seven transistors are used for producing an up or down signal converter circuit, such as a conventional Gilbert cell, which is described in greater detail in, P. Gray and R. Meyer, Analysis and Design of Analog Integrated Circuits, pp. 590-593 (John Wiley & Sons 1984), and incorporated by reference herein.
Reduction in the size, complexity and cost of electronic components has been a general goal of the electronic industry. A limited reduction in the size of typical components has been achieved by reductions in the size of the fabricated devices and other circuit elements. However, the complexity and number of devices required to perform such circuit functions has not been reduced in conventional electronic components.
Accordingly, a circuit configuration to perform such functions with a reduced number of devices and complexity is desirable.